On Any Given Sunday

I have taken some pictures and have missed a lot of other photo opportunities but getting them in order has been the delay.  We are either staying really busy or we are moving more slowly than before.  I think it is a little of both.  We have some activities upon us which I will attempt to update in the next few weeks along with some I am currently jumping over but here are a few pictures and captions to help keep you up to date with us.

Last week I attended a Conference for Families in the Ministry held by the Iglesia Bautista de Sahuaro in Hermosillo, Mx.  This is Pastor Perez' and the church's  second conference to help encourage families in the ministry here in Sonora and bordering states.  It was good to see fifteen families and nine separate churches represented. 

This week we conclude our first series of institute classes for our work here in Magdalena.  Our students have done a tremendous job in being faithful and in their studies.  We will take a break for December and plan on beginning again in January.  The purpose was to begin training one man specifically that believes that God has called him into the ministry and my purpose was to prove his sincerity and I must give him an A+!

As the title suggest, these photos are of any given Sunday.  A group photo of our people, a couple of Sunday School shots, and an outside shot.  The other photo is one I took on Saturday visitation of a local house.  It is suppose to be a "nativity" scene but incorporates a lot of witchcraft and idolatry.  The god of this world sure has confused and confounded the minds of most.  Souls need the Truth.

Families in the Ministry Conference

On Any Given Sunday

The Street in front of the Church

Under age eleven Sunday School Class

Sunday Morning

A Little Bit of Every Belief without the Truth

It's a Party - Take Two

Since our last update we were able to participate in a mission's conference with Opelika Missionary Baptist Church and Pastor Richard Fairbanks.  Pastor Fairbanks and I have "traded" places.  When we were starting the work at Mohave Baptist Church he was one of our faithful missionaries serving in Australia.  After many years of faithful service and some heath issues he has now turned out to pastor!  Anyway, Pastor Fairbanks tracked us down and invited us to be part of the churches first ever "Faith Promise Mission Conference".  It was a great joy for us to attend and a needed little break for the family.

Abigail was also able to take a trip to Scotland and England with some missionary friends.  She enjoyed her trip and time and I am sure that what she experienced will be a lasting memory for her life.  It is our (her parents) desire to affect her life to live for God and not self and to be actively involved in missionary outreach to the uttermost part of the earth.  Thank you for taking a part in helping her take that mission's trip.

So "It's A Party - Take Two".  Last Friday we had a fiesta here at the house for our people to celebrate both Peggy and my birthdays.  Our people really enjoyed the night.  We set up outside with some ambiance lighting and God gave us a great climate and a good time.  We had purchased seven kilos of meat to grill and all the fixings and extras for beef tacos.  Everyone left full.  Fiestas are the norm around town on any given Friday or Saturday night but I am sure ours made an impression in the neighborhood for what it lacked - the loud music and the drinking. 

So what's next.  Another fiesta!  Our people have expressed interest in an American Thanksgiving.  Of course with the emphasis on turkey!  Still it has all ready given me opportunity to preach on the believer's responsibility to be thankful. 

Thank you for your interest in the work here and in the lives of our family.  We are rejoicing in the goodness and blessings of God.

The Birthday Couple

"Manning the grill"

 Appetizers

The Main Course

Tacos Carne Asada

Happy birthday to two special people!

Happy birthday, Pastor Harris (Oct 19th) and to Peggy (Oct 28th). You both are a blessing.

 

It's a Party!

September and specifically the week of the 8th through the 14th was for birthdays.  We had a birthday on the 9th, the 11th, the 12th and the 14th.  Wednesday night Fransica had a birthday party for her husband Jesus at their house.  They invited the whole church over and had decorated their front yard for the event.  It was a good time of fellowship and some good food.  We had Anna's birthday party earlier in the week in that we were going to be traveling again on the 12th.  Anna was happy with her gifts.  One of her gifts was a new comforter that goes with her newly painted bedroom.  Definitely bright and festive!  The last birthday of the week was for Aylin (our youngest soon to be church member).  She turned seven on Saturday and enjoyed the morning on visitation with Peggy and I.  We treated her to some chips and then everyone also enjoyed an ice cream (it's still very warm [105] here).  Sunday night her parents (Alonso & Rosario) had a party at church for her with pinata and all.

On a side note Abigail is in Scotland for the new few weeks.  She was invited to travel along with the James Males family as they revisit their former mission field.  They will be checking in on the works that were started during their stay there as well as checking on the possibility of future works.  Abigail has been looking forward to this trip and will no doubt return with a new zeal and life perspective of missionary works.  Thank you to all who have participated in helping her financially and please continue to be in prayer for her travels.

 Anna (the birthday girl)

Jesus' birthday party

Jesus & Fransica

Martin & Imelda

Mario & Marisol

Alonso & Rosario

Jesus (the birthday boy)

Forced Fellowship

I used to tell our folks at Mohave Baptist Church that I was purposely involving them in "forced fellowship" when we would have work days or take trips or plan various activities.  Every now and then I would try to get a group together to do something especially when we had the opportunity and privilege of having a missionary around.  I found that it was a great way of helping new Christians grow and older Christians continue to mature and not loose their zeal.

Now for those of you who know me personally, you know that sitting around talking is not my forte, not even close.  Send me to the dentist for a root canal, sew me up without anesthetic but please don't make me sit around and talk about nothing in general.

So guess what the Mexican people just love to do.  Yes, you got it, sit around and talk for hours on end!  The shoe is now on the other foot.  We are now in our fourth week of institute classes and while our folks are sponging up the material they are also loving the opportunity to sit around after wards and sip coffee and fellowship.

Last Sunday one of our families who is struggling just to put food on their table invited us over after evening services to enjoy more fellowship with a cookout at their house.  The invite ended up for the whole church and so we all met at their house after leaving the evening services and spent another couple of hours in "forced fellowship".  These folks have nothing and little worldly hope of getting more tomorrow yet they are willing to happily share what they have at the time with anyone.

In the end God blessed their desire to be a blessing and they enjoyed a buffet of ribs, pizza, potato salad, mac and cheese, chips and salsa and fellowship.  In the end the fellowship was enjoyed and not forced.

 Las Chicas of the work

Los Hermanos of the work

Cooking ribs by the flashlight

Just sitting and talking : Fellowship

 Transporting the Seed: 13,800 John & Romans

The Summer Sizzle

We do not really have it all that bad for climate here in Magdalena.  It is 105 today with 30% humidity outside with 62% in the house but only 85 degrees.  Back on the fourth of July we had the opportunity to be back in Bullhead City, Arizona and I think it was 126 degrees that day!  I was also recently in Fargo, North Dakota to pick up Abigail and they were "suffering" with some high 80 degree days,  Thank you Pastor Scheving for the lake invitation but us high heat desert dwellers don't take to water till it warms up.

Father's Day:

The first few pictures below show our men receiving their Father's Day gift:  a small LED flashlight.  Of course the gift was significant of the light that our father's need to be to their families and it was meant to be a helpful gift as well.  From left to right are Juan, yours truly, Alonso, Mario, Eduardo, Jesus and German.  Not shown of course are a few men that are not fathers.

Soccer Fellowships:

I used to "joke" in Bullhead City about our people and men specifically being involved in "force fellowship".  I would have work days or invite some of our men along for some other activity more to "force" our people to learn to fellowship with each other rather than just at church times.  Fellowship is essential for the growth and unity of a work.  Well here the shoe is one the other foot.  Our people have gotten together and are "forcing" their pastor to join in on their fellowships!  There is a municipal soccer field here in town that we found is usually vacant after our evening service.  After our evening services then we dismiss and regroup down at the soccer field until well after dark.  The ladies pack a picnic and everyone enjoys as the evening cools down and the opportunity to fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Guadalupe:

About two months ago while in town on a Saturday I was called across the street by a stranger who obviously was homeless and looking for some help.  I met Lupe (Guadalupe).  Lupe is originally from another state and was abandoned here in Magdalena.  To make matters really hard for him Lupe is disabled.  He had polio as a boy and has no strength in his legs.  Someone he manages to walk on crutches.  Anyway we invited him to services and invited him to lunch and helped him to a small degree.  The following week he "disappeared".  Two weeks ago Lupe calls and ask if he could have a ride to church.  Ends up that the police had arrested him twice as a vagrant (all his worldly goods including my phone number was taken from him) and then he was hospitalized for about a month due to his diabetes.  By the grace of God and a gospel tract Lupe had made a personal decision to accept Christ as Saviour in the meantime.  Lupe now lives on the porch of the building in the last picture.  It is amazing to me how God is taking care of him.  Yes, he is "homeless" but God has provided quite a bubble of help around him and Lupe is very aware that it is God that has sent these friends to help him.  He is actually an automatic transmission technician and today he started working for another contact that I have to open a transmission shop.  My hope would be that it is mutually beneficial financially to both parties but it will give Lupe a "home", some income and I hope that through his witness the Lord will bring the other contact to salvation. 

At the least surely you and I can be grateful for the health, the home and the help that God has given us in life!

Today is also the start of our summer youth camp.  We will catch up with you all on the flip side!

Desert beauty on our front window sill

Father's Day 2013

Soccer Fellowship

Lupe's "home"

Happy Anniversary (June 22nd)

May God continue to bless you as you have been a blessing to others.

BAPTISMS: May 26th

We have been teaching on the need to follow the Lord in this first step of  faith for quite awhile.  We have also been working on securing our own baptismal pool.  God blessed when I spied one sitting in a back yard and persisted until an answer was given as to its availability with a decent price of about $250.00 U.S.  Crossroad Baptist Church helped us purchase it and with a little work and preparation it was put back into service for the Lord.

We have planned a special day for each final Sunday of the month for the summer and although we had to be out of town the week previous we were able to plan to have a baptism service for that same Sunday.  We had seven that had voluntarily stepped forward for baptism and four of those were able to follow through.  The other three will now be able to follow through within a few hours notice - just enough time to fill up the baptistery.

The four baptized were Jesus and his wife Francisca, Marisol and Alonso.  Alonso's wife was all ready saved and baptized and Marisol's husband is also saved but needs to take this personal step in his faith as well.  I stress the importance, teach on the why and plead with each to take this step but leave the drawing to the Holy Spirit.  God is at work and we gratefully praise Him!

Preparing the baptistry to be used

AM service

Fellowship dinner

Marisol

Alonso

Considering Tasmania

In our recent trip down under we were able to take the opportunity to specifically visit Tasmania.  For those who may be a little rusty on their geography, Tasmania is an island state of Australia 150 miles south of the main part of the country across Bass Strait.  Named for Dutch explorer Able Tasman who first sighted the island on November 24, 1642.  Tasmania has a land size equivalent to West Virginia and a population of over 500,000  Their summer (December to February) average will range between 70 to 75 degrees while winter (June to August) will vary between 37 to 54 degrees.  Annual rainfall will be between 26" to 106" depending on location.

Tasmania was settled as a British penal colony in 1804.

The largest city and state capital is Hobart with a population of 211,656 followed by the city of Launceston with 106,153 and then the city of Devonport with a population of 25,551.  Thirty-four percent of the population of Tasmania claim the major part of their income as welfare.

For the last four years I have been attempting to locate any Independent Baptist in Tasmania.  There is a history of many who have been there but I have only been able to locate one claiming to be an Independent Baptist Church - Faith Baptist Church and Pastor Brutus Balan in Hobart.  God gave us the privilege to meet up with Pastor Balan and most of his folks at his house on a Wednesday night while we were there and he confirmed that to his knowledge they are the only Independent Baptist Church on the whole of the island.  500,000 souls and only one Independent Baptist Church! 

Without a doubt there is a GREAT spiritual need in Tasmania.

Devonport

Port Arthur

Abandon Anglican Building

Along the East Coast

Country Anglican building

 

Historic Female Penal Site

MEANWHILE - Back on the Field

I still have some more updates scheduled for our trip to Australia but I need to also update what is happening here on the field as well.  God has been and is at work and we can only rejoice in His goodness upon us.

A ROUGH FLOOR

Our building has a very uneven and very rough cement floor.  It is hard to keep the dust in the building at minimum because the floor is so bad.  The problem with tiling the floor is that it also very uneven.  Within twelve feet it will drop over and inch and a half but then the next twelve feet will change that much more in various ways.  Actually the best answer would be to break up the floor and pour a new one.  The problem is that we only rent the building.  So ... I have decided and begun to attempt to lay tile.  It is a job that has proven to be tasking.

THE REAL FOCUS

Buildings though while necessary are temporal and not our focus.  The focus is the individual soul.  God has been blessing.  We have had two special days recently.  The first was "Children's Day" which is celebrated nationally here in Mexico and the second was "Mother's Day".  Children's Day was celebrated with a fiesta, pinata, candy, ice cream and cake.  Mother's Day was celebrated with a special gift to all our mothers in attendance and we also had two cakes.  One for those who were not mothers and a second special one for mothers only.

The highlight of the day though was that we had a high attendance of thirty-nine and seven who made a public decision to follow the Lord in believer's baptism.  Those decisions have been a long time in coming and we thank God that the Holy Spirit has worked in the lives of our people to make this personal decision.  We are excited about all that God is doing in our midst and look for even greater progress to report in the months to come.

One Unlevel Floor

The Local Sand Store-The River Bed

                                       

Finally a few tile laid

Day of the kids

Mother's Day

      

Mother's Day Fellowship

West Wyalong, NSW - Gateway Baptist Church (mission)

 After leaving Canberra we had the wonderful privilege to be with the Gateway Baptist Church in West Wyalong, NSW.  Gateway Baptist Church is a mission work of the Sherwood Hills Baptist Church in Campeltown.  The work was started many years ago from contacts made on an "outback circuit ministry" that Sherwood Hills Baptist Church sponsored to reach out into smaller communities.  I am not dogmatic on all of my dates and facts but the just of it all is that not too long after it's inception the work was abandoned by the missionary in charge.  Sherwood Hills Baptist Church has poured a lot of time, effort and finances into the continuation of the work sending one of their pastors or laymen to West Wyalong three of four Sundays a month.  With the advent of live streaming the work has been strengthened as every service of Sherwood Hills Baptist Church can be broadcast.


Anyway, it was our privilege to be invited to spend a Sunday morning with these dear folks.  Brother Steve Thomas who was our tour guide for Sydney also became our guide to West Wyalong.  He picked us up in Canberra and drove us out to West Wyalong where we spent the night, enjoyed the morning with the work and then drove us back to Sydney for the evening service.

There is a GREAT need for help here.  I have been praying for several years and will continue to do so with an even greater burden that God would send His man to continue the work that has been given a basic start there in West Wyalong.  I would go tomorrow but I am a little busy here where I am at.  Surely there is someone that is free to go - Gateway Baptist Church is a great opportunity.

Gateway Baptist Church (mission) West Wyalong, NSW

The Families of Gateway Baptist Church

Sunday March 24th AM at Gateway Baptist Church

Sunday March 24th AM at Gateway Baptist Church

Fellowship after the morning service